Controversial $125 million F35 stealth fighter jets to touch down in Australia

Back in 1985, the Royal Australian Air Force’s newest fighter planes, the F18s, were leaving Lemoore military airbase in California on their delivery flight to Australia.

My report from the scene spoke of the long record-breaking flight ahead to Williamtown, near Newcastle, and the excitement in Australia that a new generation plane was about to arrive.

Fast forward 33 years to now, and I find myself at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix, Arizona.

Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix, Arizona is the site of departure for Australia' two new F35 stealth planes. (9News/Adam Bovino)

Here at Luke there’s the same excitement as there was at Lemoore all those years ago. A new generation of RAAF crews making final preparations for the F18’s replacement, the F35A, to fly – yes, again – to Williamtown.

The F35s have been a while coming and not without plenty of controversy. Now this week the first two RAAF F35s are headed for their new home in Australia.

Australia is eventually getting 72 F35s over the next five years and at $125 million each, Australia gets what is considered the most lethal warplane ever built.

It is almost undetectable by radar. It flies at one-and-a-half times the speed of sound. A lethal killing machine.

Related Articles

Wing Commander Darren Clare is one of the two Aussie pilots taking these first single seater F35s to their new home base.

Back in 1985, I reported on the departure of the RAAF's F18s fighter planes from Lemoore military airbase in California. And here I am again, 33 years later. (9News/Adam Bovino)

"It's absolutely a flying computer. A computer pretending to be an airplane," Clare said.

Over the years since 2002 various Australian government ministers fended off criticism that the joint strike fighter purchase was an expensive mistake. The pain continued for years. It was way behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Slowly, Lockheed Martin sorted out the bugs and the F35 is set to become the workhorse of more than a dozen air forces around the world.

The government’s purchase agreement included 15 Australian companies being contributors to the project.

Sections of the vertical tails of the aircraft are manufactured in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, the weapon adaptors in Queensland and engine parts are made in Western Australia.

"There are Australian components in every F35,” Billie Flynn, the F35s legendary test pilot, said.

"It takes three years to build a fighter jet. It takes 26 years to build a fighter pilot,” Mr Flynn said. (9News/Adam Bovino)

“So, it’s not just the 330 aircraft that have been built to date. It is 3000 or more aircraft that we will build over its lifetime.

“That is an astonishing investment in Australian industry now and into the future."

The F35 in Australia is expected to create hundreds of more jobs.

We were given a tour of the Lockheed Martin production line in Fort Worth, Texas and up close, no matter where you look on the completed F35s you won't see the guns, the cameras or the antennas.

They are all there but embedded inside what is a very deadly aircraft – and the ultimate stealth fighter.

Wing Commander Darren Clare is one of the two Aussie pilots taking these first single seater F35s to their new home base. (9News/Adam Bovino)

"With the F18s the bombs, the missiles and the long-range fuel tanks sit on the outside of the plane,” said Mr Flynn.

“But with the F35, all that is internal and as far as radar is concerned it means the pilot and his plane are almost invisible.

“He or she flies with absolute impunity knowing that the enemy will be unable to detect him."

Mr Flynn makes an important point: as far as the aircraft designers are concerned there is one thing that matters above all else.

"It takes three years to build a fighter jet. It takes 26 years to build a fighter pilot,” he said.

The F35 is almost undetectable by radar. It flies at one-and-a-half times the speed of sound. (9News/Adam Bovino)

“What we care about, as parents, is that we are going to send our sons and daughters into harm’s way and what matters to us is that those men and women flying those fighter planes are coming home every single day."

The two F35s will spend several days making a relatively slow trip to Australia touching down in Hawaii and Guam as well as air to air refueling.

They will land in Brisbane on December 10 before moving on to the F35 home base in Williamtown.